Monday, May 25, 2009

Flattened Fauna

I am recovering from two back to back weekends of dog shows.  The first was in Jackson, TN, which is just over halfway to Memphis on I-40.  The second was in Harriman, TN which is near Knoxville on I-40.

One thing that I noticed is that there were many squished animals by the roadside.  Nashville seems to be transition point.  West of Nashville, the road is riddled with the corpses of armadillos!  What? Basically they're possums with a suit of armor.  And like opossums, they tend to get themselves run over in alarming numbers.  I guess they're using I-40 to migrate east from Texas.  And because they are relatively rare here, I feel compelled to scream ARM-A-DILLLLOOOOO! at the top of my lungs when I see one.  Fortunately, I have only seen them while driving by myself. (Can you say crazy?)

Nashville seems to be a point of transition, with the predominant squishy being possums and squirrels.  I did see some surprising stuff heading east, though.  Once out past Lebanon, I noticed a lot of dead turtles.  On the way home yesterday, I saw TWO squished SNAPPING TURTLES!!!  I could tell they were snapping turtles because a.) they were big assed and b.) they had these monstrous, gator-like tails.  

I really wish I could get a camera implanted into my forehead.  I doubt it is safe to pull over to photograph roadkill, so I didn't.  But I hate that I couldn't document it.

I also saw a coyote outside of Crossville, but fortunately that was still alive and kicking.  Wow, such a nature-based weekend!

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